home essentials broadband help needed

[bluesea]

Please help me with the BT home essentials broadband.

I contacted BT by phone yesterday about this and was told I must contact DWP. I'm located in Northern Ireland and so DWP doesnt administer benefits there. Also I have been on ESA benefit for years and have a letter from benefits in NI.

Why doesnt BT customer service understand DWP doesnt cover NI and how can I convince BT I get ESA and quality for the home essentials. I did try getting answers on the phone and chat but its like banging head against brick wall.

[Manatarms84]

While I admit to not knowing much about Northern Ireland the advice you are being given seems odd. The way I understand it and from my sisters experience she called and gave them her national insurance number and they verified the entitlement from there, she did not have to contact anyone else besides BT to get this done. This can be done at any point either at point of order or at any time after your service starts

[bluesea]

Thanks for your response. Yes I was asked to give NI number but then told to contact DWP. As the ESA benefit is administered by benefit agency in NI and not DWP then it wont show up when BT does their NI number check for the benefit. What surprises me is that the BT customer service is totally in the dark about benefits in NI not being administered by DWP. Also as a general point trying to find help from BT about this is proving impossible, I guess Home Essentials isn't priority for obvious reasons.

Finally, folks be aware of scammers using private messages in this forum. I received a private message as a response to my post and it is clearly a nasty scam and yes I've reported it.   

[Christopher_G]

Hi @bluesea 

It may be worth having a chat with the Department for Communities for advice.

Thanks for reporting that private message that you mentioned. Always best to be wary of any advice in private messages that aren't from the community support team.

Chris

[bluesea]

Thanks Chris

The DfC issues a proof of benefit letter but BT doesn't take a letter as it insists the check is done via the phone. Think I will have to raise a complaint to try and get something done about this.